Spring break...Moroccan Style

Hello Everyone! How are you? Great inshallah! Anyway I survived spring camp! Whooo hooo! It was an intense week full of english teaching, art club and 100 moroccan teenagers!
There were camps this week all over the country for the kids spring break but mine was in a town named Figuig. It is about an hour and a half away from me and it is known for its beautiful palmeries, if you read my blog regularly it is the town I went to for valentines day. Anyway it was an english immersion camp but we also had sports, clubs and a feild trip.
The week started out with a simple oral english test so that we could place the kids in appropriate classes. I taught intermediate and I was very impressed how much english the kids knew. My lesson plan was all about future dreams and hopes and I really enjoyed hearing the kids goals. Everything from race car drivers to break dancers to english teachers, you name it they dreamt it. (One boy even wrote that his dream was to marry Teacher Kristin...lol) Unemployment is a serious issue in this country because %50 of the population is of college graduate age, there just arent enough jobs to go around, so it was nice to see that this situation hasnt tainted the kids ambitions. Aside from teaching english I was also the art teacher for the week. I thought this was just great! I had such a great time, we made friendship braclets, plaster hands, rain sticks and we painted murals on the Dar Chebab walls. I was amazed at the kids creativity! They have fewer outlets here for the arts as in school they study mostly the basics and they spend their free time studying even more to pass a very hard graduation test. So even the 18 year old boys spent hours making friendship braclets, something I think would be hard to sell to an American class. :) Infact we had to go to the store and buy enough thread for all the campers to make braclets, I became the girl with the friendship braclet thread which boosted my counsler popularity ten fold ;) I think I will look into maybe teaching art when I come home, I forgot how much I liked it and to see children in their creative element is really rewarding.
Other highlights of the week were teaching an aerobics class to all the girl campers...we had a great time. We also had my favorite Moroccan meal three times..sounds silly but I never get to eat it so I was quite happy, I hope to learn how to prepare it before I leave but basically it is meat with boiled prunes and hard boiled eggs...might not sound delicious but I assure you it is! We also went on a feild trip to a surrounding city. We took the kids on an enviromental scavengar hunt where we came across a little river. This is the first water I have seen outside in 6 months so I had a blast splashing around in it. There were tad poles everywhere and a few frogs..definatley more adventurous than my usual day. We also had some good drum sessions and lots of laid back fun at camp. I really enjoyed the company of the other volunteers I was with and while it was a long week, I am really looking forward to the camp I will work in the summer. It is on the coast and I will be there for a month which is heavent sent because my town is rarely under 110 during that time. I am getting increasingly worried about summer cause it sounds pretty rough but luckily I will get away for camp and for a trip to spain! YAY!

In other news...I bought an oven finally...lol yes my life is that dull that I must write about my purchases but really it is exciting because in the states baking was my sanity! I already made chocolate chip cookies, sesame orange buscuits, and zuchinni bread. The possibilities are endless and I will have lots of free time this summer to experiment. Hopefully this week I will buy a fridge and then I will be unstoppable ;)

I would like to give a huge thanks to the MANY packages I got this month! You guys never seize to amaze me! Thank you Mom, Dad, Kelly, Diani, Aunt Ellen, Amy and Ken, Colleen and clan, and Aunt Vera. I am a spoiled girl and I know it. I was telling someone the other day that I am so lucky to know how great my friends and family are at such a young age. I didnt have to have a huge loss or a wake up call, granted I moved to Africa but come on..you people are amazing! I only wish you knew how much your support and love means to me, I will never be able to repay you for the sanity and peace you have given me.

I am sorry this blog is so horribly written lol...I had so much to write about and the words just wont come and now it is time to go to a lunch date...I promise I will write another one soon! Lastly, has anyone seen how damn cute my nephew has gotten?! Oh geez...I will add a picture of him to my blog for everyone should get to enjoy such beauty! :)

I miss you guys tons! I really reallly dont need anything since this was the month of packages but just for future reference my site mates parents told me about a deal you can get if you ask the post office worker...it is a flat rate box and costs under $30 for 25 pounds, several of you have spent WAY too much money on postage so its worth looking into.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, they are mostly from camp, my cat, art club, and me modeling my jelaba (the traditional clothing here)

Love you guys! Thanks for reading!
xoxo
kris